Will Downtown Dublin Ever Become a Reality?
Dublin’s residents have been yearning for a true downtown district for many years. In fact, no fewer than six specific plans have been written and published over the years that are either for the downtown district or an area within the district.
- Dublin Downtown
- Downtown Core
- Dublin Village Historic
- San Ramon Road
- Village Parkway
- West Dublin BART
Based on the volume of plans, it’s obvious that having a distinctive and proud downtown district is a priority for the City’s leadership – so why haven’t we seen any progress? Why have there been so many fits and starts?
The biggest challenge has been that most of the businesses and landowners haven’t been incentivized to embrace the vision for a new downtown. The push for the downtown vision has almost entirely been driven by residents. However, the City’s leadership may have found a way to create the pull-through needed to incentivize business owners and provide the funding needed to build out a magnificent downtown district.
Here are some of the reasons why this time could be different:
- Sales Tax Reimbursement Program - provides new businesses with a tax credit of anywhere from $250K to potentially millions of dollars to help with building and property improvements.
- Downtown Traffic Impact Fee Reduction and Deferral – developers (or their tenants) have to pay a fee to help the City accommodate the additional traffic brought in as a result of the new building. Mayor Tim Sbranti and the Council have reduced the downtown traffic impact fee and also allowed developers to defer payment of the fee.
- Community Development Pool - in exchange for approval to increase building density in the downtown district, developers will need to pay into a Community Development Pool (or fund) with money or land to help make public improvements such as pedestrian-only paseos, plazas with water features, new sidewalks, and parking structures.
- Competition Between Property Owners to Grab Density Credits – the approved Downtown Dublin Specific Plan will have a cap on density. Developers wanting to add another floor to their building or increase the footprint of their shopping center will have to compete with one another to get approval before the Density Cap is reached in the downtown. Once one or two developers get approved to increase density, then we should see a flood of other developers submitting requests to get in below the cap.
- Waters/Sewer Hookup Fee Reduction – details are still in the works, but the Dublin City Council and Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) liaison committees have sketched out a deal where the City of Dublin could provide new restaurants with water/sewer hookup fee credits. For new construction, many restaurants pay over $200K just to plug into the main water line. The City of Dublin credits could significantly reduce the cost of new construction or the expansion of existing restaurants.
In light of these recent efforts by the City’s leadership, the surrounding area demographics, the expected US economic expansion, and the fact that the downtown area is easily accessible by I-580/I-680 and the future West Dublin BART Station, it is conceivable that Dublin could have a true Downtown District within the next five years. The key is for residents and businesses to continue providing feedback and supporting the City and DSRSD leadership teams in their joint efforts to make Downtown Dublin a reality.
11:08 PM on December 1st, 2009
i think residence like the idea of a downtown. i would prefer a downtown like pedestrian friendly district build in east dublin. the west dublin bart station is a complete waste of money.
4:25 PM on December 2nd, 2009
I do not know whether 5 years is feasible at all. It seems too complicated to remodel the “old” Dublin into a downtown. It may be easier to build a brand new downtown on an undeveloped land. Camp Park comes to mind naturally.
4:42 PM on December 2nd, 2009
I live in West Dublin and agree Camp Parks would be ideal for a downtown. It’s close to BART and sits right in the middle of East/West Dublin and has room for condos/townhouses.
I also agree with the first comment; W Dublin Bart station was a bad idea..
Just my 2 cents.. Keep up the good work John Z!
5:41 PM on December 2nd, 2009
I don’t think 5 years is reasonable, and unless people are living in a parallel universe, the economy isn’t supporting that kind of growth in Dublin. It has taken a long time to get Grafton Station and Tralee built and occupied with businesses. The infrastructure — mainly streets — don’t initially appear to support the kind of volume of people, traffic, and parking to make it a viable “downtown”.
With that said, I’m envisioning “downtown” to be like Santana Row in SJ. Even if we were to look at it like downtown Danville or Pleasanton (which would be really neat), there are extensive stretches of road/streets to support the upscale and mom-and-pop stores, etc. Dublin doesn’t seem to offer that…yet. And, unless there’s discounts in rent nowadays, there may not be enough mom-and-pop shops that could afford to go into a “new” downtown.
I certainly don’t want to see a “downtown” full of shops that I can find at Hacienda Crossings or Stoneridge Mall.
11:02 PM on December 3rd, 2009
The obvious missing point here is why not Hacienda Crossing as the potential center of “Dublin downtown”. Camp Parks, East Dublin/Pleasanton BART (‘east’ here only because of the new West Dublin BART station), supposedly Santana Row wannabe Promenade at Dublin Ranch, rumored Whole Foods, etc, are all within this great gathering point in Dublin.
In fact, the main point is that the Hacienda Crossing already has gained its popularity and fame among residents in Tri-Valley. And, it’s the most logical site to be developed for this ‘downtown’ idea/project. People in our neighborhood easily will recognize ‘yeah, that nice Dublin downtown area’ so much like Danville’s and Pleasanton’s. This idea could be in balance between Santana Row style and Danville/Pleasanton style.
I do not feel quite comfortable that the City’s leadership’s shaping our rapidly growing town is heading in the right direction. It’s hard to change momentum, and there are clearly preferences and momentum already going on in this area as the future of Dublin. I urge them to understand this momentum.
In fact, for the peace of the West/East debate, this area (Hacienda Crossing) is ideal as a site quite in between.